Promises

They choose not to quit when the going gets rough because they promised once to see it through.

They stick to seemingly lost causes.

They hold on to a love grown cold.

They stay with people who have become pains in the neck.

They still dare to make promises and care enough to keep the promises they make.

I want to say to you that if you have a ship you will not desert, if you have people you will not forsake, if you have causes you will not abandon, then you are like the One, True God, Creator of the universe and the original inventor and pioneer of promises.

What a marvelous thing a promise is!

When a person makes a promise, they reach out into an unpredictable future and makes one thing predictable: that they will be there even when being there costs more than they want to pay.

When a person makes a promise, they stretch themselves out into circumstances that no one can control and yet, controls at least one thing: that they will be there no matter what the circumstances turn out to be.

With one simple word of promise, a person creates an island of certainty in a sea of uncertainty.

When a person makes a promise, they stake a claim on personal freedom and power.

When you make a promise, you take a hand in creating your own future.

[Keeping Promises, Citation: Lewis Smedes, “The Power of Promises,” A Chorus of Witnesses, edited by Long and Plantinga, (Eerdmans, 1994)]